Sudanese nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Sudan, as amended; the Sudanese Nationality Law, and its revisions; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Sudan. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Nationality describes the relationship of an individual to the state under international law, whereas citizenship is the domestic relationship of an individual within the nation. In Sudan, nationality is often equated with ethnicity, despite recognition of the legal definitions. Sudanese nationality is typically obtained under the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in Sudan, or jus sanguinis, born to parents with Sudanese nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization.
Acquisition of nationality Nationality can be acquired in Sudan at birth or later in life through naturalization.
By birth There are no statutory provisions for children born in Sudan who would otherwise be stateless to acquire Sudanese nationality. Those who acquire nationality automatically at birth include:
Children born anywhere whose father is Sudanese; Persons who were residing in Sudan in 1994 and whose paternal ancestors were domiciled in Sudan on 1 January 1956; or Abandoned children or orphans discovered in the territory whose parents are unknown.
By naturalization Naturalization can be granted to persons who have resided in the territory for a sufficient period of time to confirm they understand the customs and traditions of the society. General provisions are that applicants have good character and conduct; have no criminal convictions; have good mental and physical health; can legally be economically self-sufficient; and have resided in the country for ten years. Sudanese nationality law specifically excludes adoptees from acquiring nationality from their guardians. Besides foreigners meeting the criteria, other persons who may be naturalized include:
Children born to a Sudanese mother and foreign father can submit an application to become a Sudanese national of origin; The wife of a Sudanese national after a two-year residency; Minor children can be automatically naturalized when their parent acquires nationality; or Persons who have gained presidential approval to naturalize do not have to meet any requirements.
Loss of nationality Sudanese nationals can renounce their nationality pending approval by the president. Nationals may be denaturalized in Sudan for serving a foreign government or in the military of another state without government authorization; for committing serious crimes, disloyal acts, or crimes against the state or state security; or for fraud, misrepresentation, or concealment in a naturalization petition. Re-acquisition of nationality that has been lost whether through renunciation or automatic loss by becoming South Sudanese, is at the discretion of the president.
Dual nationality Dual nationality has typically been allowed in Sudan since 1993, as long as the other nationality acquired is not for South Sudan.
History The inhabitants of Nubia, in the northern area of what is now Sudan, had a long history of trade and military conflict from ancient times. From 2450 BC to 1450 BC, the dominant kingdom in the area was the city-state of Kerma. Between 1650 and 1550 B.C. the Kingdom of Kush rose in the region, but was conquered by Egypt and colonized between 1550 and 1070 BC. Moving to Napata (now modern Karima, Sudan), the Kush Kingdom revolted against Egyptian rule and regained its independence in 950 BC and by 760 BC, the Kushites had established rule over Egypt as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. In the 4th century BC, Meroë replaced Napata as the capital of the Kush Kingdom. The Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum invaded Meroë around 350 AD, at which point it was abandoned. The next century was characterized as a period with small states with clear social hierarchy and the rise of the Christian kingdoms of Alodia, Makuria, and Nobadia. In 639, Arab forces conquered Egypt and Muslims began requiring inhabitants in Nubia to pay tribute. In 646, Arab forces directly attacked Nubia, but were repelled. In 652, Egypt and Nubia signed a peace treaty which provided that in exchange for an annual amount of Egyptian wine and Nubian slaves the two territories would not attack each other. The treaty would govern relations between Nubia and Egypt for the next six hundred years.
The area to the east of Lower Nubia and outside the control of Egypt and Nubia was inhabited by the Beja people. In 854, Arab forces from Qus invaded this territory making vassal states and prompting immigration from Arabia. They brought Islam into the region which slowly spread. Through intermarriage with the Beja and Nubian people, the society changed from matrilineal to patrilineal with the dominant culture being a mixture of Nubian and Arabic traditions. Egypt was conquered by the Fatimid Caliphate in 969, which sent an emissary to establish trade relations with Nubia. The trend over the next centuries was one of conflict with Muslims typically gaining territorial control. By the thirteenth century, Mamluk sultans began to invade the territory to bring it under the control of Egypt. In western Sudan, the Daju people gained control of an area near Darfur and were subsequently ousted by the Tunjur people in the early thirteenth century. A battle of 1276 near Dongola saw the Mamluks victorious and the Nubian ruler was forced to take an oath of allegiance to the Egyptian sultan. For the next years the Mamluk Sultanate extended its authority by invasion and the creation of vassal states in Nubia, and had conquered the last Christian kingdom in the region, Alodia, by the end of the fifteenth century.
Ottoman period (1517–1885) In 1504, the Funj Sultanate arose as the dominant force in the area between Gezira and the Nile. In 1517, the Ottoman Empire annexed the Funj territory and in 1520 began to expand their territory southward into Nubia. In 1526, the Ottomans had gained control of the port at Suakin. The Sultanate expanded its control from the Nile Valley eastward to Itbay and westward to Kordofan, and controlled the area until 1821. In southern Sudan by the sixteenth century the Zande people had migrated to the area and established small communities, they were subjugated in the eighteenth century by the Avungara people. Also in the south, the Shilluk Kingdom arose to dominate the lower White Nile region. In the west, the Tunjur kingdom was replaced by the Sultanate of Darfur in the seventeenth century. From the mid-sixteenth century, Ottoman rule extend over eastern and northern Sudan and from 1820 Turkish Sudan had created a colonial administration which governed its territory and began efforts to bring the south under its rule. Within the Ottoman Empire, for six centuries, there was an internal organization that defined government functions for subjects by balancing religious and communal ties, weighing aptitudes and occupations without a centralized national ideology. Ottoman subjecthood was strongly tied to religion and non-Muslims, if they were ahl al-Kitāb (People of the Book), meaning Jewish, Christian, or Zoroastrian, could benefit from being subjects by agreeing to pay a tax to the sultan. Under a pact known as zimma, in exchange for paying taxes, the sultan allowed these subjects freedom of religion and guaranteed their lives, property, and rights with an understanding that they were legally entitled to less status than Muslim subjects. The pact was agreed to by the leaders of the confessional community, who managed the adherents and their internal organization under the religious law of their community.
By the eighteenth century a political organization, known as the millet, managed the affairs of their respective religious communities and developed into the protégé system (, protected persons). Signing treaties with European powers, from the 1673 signing of a Capitulation with France, the Ottoman Empire granted France control of certain Ottoman Christians, Austria control of some Ottoman Roman Catholics, most favoured nation status to British and Dutch traders, as well as specific rights to the Republic of Venice and Russian Empire. Under the terms of these treaties, foreign powers could recruit Ottoman subjects to serve their needs as commercial agents, consuls, or interpreters, and extend to these protégés diplomatic immunity from prosecution and privileges of trade, including lowered customs tariffs. Over time, abuses of the system led to a virtual monopoly of foreign trade by protégés, clandestine sales of letters patent (), and demands from foreign powers for protection to extend from individuals to entire communities. The influence on Ottoman subjects by European powers changed the perception of these minority groups in the empire, meaning that they were increasingly seen not as Ottoman subjects, but as resident aliens.
In 1798, France and Britain's conflicts during the Napoleonic Wars extended into Egypt. France occupied the territory until 1801, when the French were defeated and Britain set about assisting the Ottoman Empire in regaining its sovereignty. To curb the disruptive effects of Europeans in the empire, from 1806, the Ottoman government began sending communiques to the foreign embassies demanding compliance with the terms of their agreements. Failing to achieve success diplomatically, in 1839, the Ottoman government issued the Edict of Gülhane, in an effort to end bribery and corruption, and to create fair tax schemes and institutions to protect the basic rights of Ottoman subjects. The Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856 () categorized subjects by whether they were Muslim or non-Muslim, granting different civil statuses to each. In 1863, new regulations upon protégés restricted the privileges they received in the empire and clarifying who were thereafter considered to be Ottoman subjects and who were foreigners.
The Khedivate of Egypt was established by 1867, and to further define subjects of the Ottoman Empire, new nationality legislation was passed in 1869 (tâbiiyet-i osmaniye kanunnamesi, Ottoman Nationality Law). The law specified terms for the acquisition and loss of who was within the sovereignty of the empire, rather than the domestic obligations and rights of citizenship. It described who was a subject, owing allegiance, and made provisions for wives, children, emigrants and immigrants. Under its terms, children derived nationality from their fathers, foreigners born in the territory could acquire nationality at majority, and foreigners born elsewhere could obtain nationality after five years residency within the imperial realm. Specific provisions included that foundlings discovered within the territory; stateless persons living in the empire; Muslim women, who despite the ban on such marriages, had married Persian men and the children of such a union; unregistered persons who had not been counted in the Ottoman census, either because no census was taken or their births were unregistered, were all considered to be Ottoman. Foreign women acquired Ottoman nationality through marriage, but could return to their original nationality upon the death of their spouse. Nationality could also be granted based on special contribution or service to the nation. Dual nationality was permitted, but was discouraged, as the government could choose not to recognize naturalization of an Ottoman subject by another state. In the 1870s, a series of measures abolished slavery.
Mahdist State (1885–1898)